The Demon and The Lady
by Sea Yu in Chel
Summary: (based on the Jhin & Camille scenes in the Awaken music video) A performance that is set in Piltover is one worth dying for. OneShot.


The Demon and The Lady

In the center stage of The Golden Gate Opera House sat a lone masked man, his long fingers dancing contently across the ivory keys of an intricately-carved grand piano. The artist produced a bittersweet melody from the instrument; a strange contrast to the putrid smell of burning flesh lingering in the air.

Khada Jhin gently hummed to the tune while bathing in the spotlight. It felt so _right _to be under this light after doing so much work with so little time. Soon, he will reap more of what he sowed. _Soon_, he murmured through his mask, almost giddily. The Golden Demon continued to play the same melody in front of his peaceful audience. It won't be long before—

_One..._ There were whispers of rumble heard from afar. Urgent. Lethal.

_Two..._ Shouting. Deep, cautious voices. Eager. Ambitious.

_Three..._ The flurry of footsteps were getting closer and closer. Khada Jhin's licked his chapped lips.

_Four!_

The theater's double doors flew open in an instant. A disturbance to the ominous peace in the room, but certainly a welcomed one.

Khada Jhin's heart thundered excitedly. _I am truly a slave to this passion..._ His previous performance this evening was nothing but a prologue. Now _this_, this was the main event. At long last it was commencing.

Long streams of lights shot around the area, followed by a set of heavy footsteps, among them was a distinctive sound of sharp steel clinking alternatively on the hard floor.

Khada Jhin ended his brief musical performance, slightly bowing to himself. He spared a quick glance at the newcomers, delighted to see the star of this evening's performance.

Tall, silver and gleaming. Ah, yes. It was _her_. The self-proclaimed foundation of peace and order in the city of progress that is Piltover. The untouchable Camille Ferros. It's such a shame that his methods of killing offends her. He has so much more to show her.

She had an exquisitely unique design to her that intrigues him more than he cared to admit. She is not full machine like that Viktor of Zaun, nor she is a human like every other face he sees on the streets. No, she is a bit of both. She is not unlike a wine aged to perfection.

Blood rushed to his face and elsewhere. Oh how he'd love to tear her apart.

Hidden behind his signature mask, his scarred lips formed a wide smile as he turned back to the piano. His hands touched the lid, taking the time to run his fingers across the polished mahogany before pushing it close. Serenity swept through him like a gentle breeze. He belonged in the moment and he's only at his best during a performance.

His ear caught a familiar click when a naughty bee stepped on one of his flowers. The Golden Demon couldn't help but witness the magnificent explosion produced by the Ionian traps made by his design. What a sight to behold. The man's life transcended from its mundane form to one that makes gods weep for how beautiful it is. An aroused sigh passed through his cloth mask. He dearly hopes that his elegant _madame_ will live long enough for the climax.

/

There were three things Camille Ferros had come to realize the minute she stepped foot inside The Golden Gate Opera House.

Firstly, she had not expected that one of her elite force was basically vaporized in front of her eyes. She felt ashamed to admit that it confused her at first. In all her years as the principal intelligencer of House Ferros, it was nothing like she had ever seen before. A weapon so unnoticeable and yet could cause so much brutality. The explosion ate the entirety of the man's flesh. And there was not supposed to be that much blood coming from a human being.

Secondly, she felt ill for the very first time in her career. A woman such as her; she who has seen and has executed so many jobs in her life that involved less cleaner methods. Her stomach churned despite her half-mechanical body. How undignified.

Lastly, there was nobody else more suited for this job than her. Khada Jhin is destined to die in her hands, once and for all.

She had heard of the Golden Demon of Ionia. For all the things he was infamous for, she was doubtful of the fact that no one has ever kept track of the masked man, who seemed so utterly incapable of stealth and silence. But he was not interfering with Piltover, so his presence has not piqued Camille's interest in the slightest. However, after hearing numerous reports of the Demon's recent "performances" across Valoran, Camille had initiated the search for his whereabouts, until the fool decided to strut inside her city ceremoniously, killing Madame Elodie, an Ionian princess. This alone would result in poor trade relations with Ionia and would harm the City of Progress. And not only that, he had also murdered citizens of Piltover, those who were moving parts of a great machine. The killer threatened the very stability and prosperity of Piltover. Camille will have none of that.

Khada Jhin is a disgrace. An abonimation. He deserves nothing less than a painful death. With this thought in mind, Camille briefly examined the Demon's weapons in motion.

Her cybernetic eyes shifted from blue to orange to blue again, her blades already on the move. She spotted Khada Jhin on the stage, sitting on front of an antique grand piano that belonged to Lady Cecilia Winston, the owner of this now ruined establishment, the woman who was at the wrong place at the wrong time along with Madame Elodie. Camille's jaw snapped as she sped through the carnage that was around her. The so-called elite forces his great grand niece had put together proved to be worthless. But then again, this was no ordinary mission.

Her eyes stayed glued to The Golden Demon as he flourished his infamous magically-infused gun and pointed it at her.

Camille did not dare to underestimate his apparent calmness and reserve as he stood with a hand to his hip while he took aim at her. She skipped with long strides, descending the wide steps through the long line in the center of the theater, deftly dodging both the triggered and yet to be triggered traps belonging to the madman onstage.

His first shot was faster than she had anticipated, but she had already adapted to expecting the unexpected. She leaned to the side, the bullet flying past her as the hooks augmented into her leg began to shoot upward to the ceiling, again dodging another shot, the glowing bullet too close for comfort speeding past her. Camille controlled the gravity of her body to pull herself faster to the hook's destination.

The explosions beneath her continued still, and she briefly wondered how much Olivia has to financially compensate for so many of these unnecessary deaths.

Camille knows the true compensation is the end of The Golden Demon's life.

/

Everything was going so well. A genius in his own right, Khada Jhin's amber eye had trouble taking in too much of this beautiful scenery. Breathtaking colors of lavender and pink decorated the house in clouds of sparkling smoke. And that's not all, the star of the show was running towards him in frightening determination. He could almost taste her blood.

"Darling," cooed The Golden Demon, and began to laugh a joyous laugh. "I will make you beautiful!"

Electricity traveled to his fingertips as he fired his third shot to the enormous glass chandelier Camille Ferros was about to swing by, triggering another set of his brilliant flowers. The result is an astonishing whirl of seductively playful, artistic colors that made Khada Jhin's eye shine. His elegant ballerina did a twirl midair, prompting him a silent gasp.

_Oh my_. He did not expect her to cooperate this well with his performance. This truly is the best one yet. Something primal woke up deep inside him. Something he needed more than he needs air.

Camille Ferros' death will be the death of his.

Ah, but a wonderful performance is nothing if not concluded properly. Khada Jhin deeply inhaled the sweet fume of death before moving to bow for his brilliance.

He thought it would make more sense to bow to the other side since his performance should be for the audience behind him, but it seemed silly to bow in front of the curtains. And besides, the stunning lady who made this possible has to take credit too, so he made the bow as a gesture of gratitude as well. Never mind the fact that she seemed dead-set to killing him.

He could almost see his reflection on her blade as it was set to slice him in half. He yearned to admire his reflection closer but Khada Jhin had to tear his eyes away from the scene. As much as he wanted to stay locked in this position forever, and even go as far as to die for it, he sensed that with a certain Camille Ferros, there are still performances for them to collaborate on in the future. So he better be alive for that. And so should she.

The Golden Demon loosened his grip on Whisper, his beloved gun, and held off the fourth shot. Whisper felt hot and ready in his palm, but he decided to cool off his burning passion. At least for now. It was already a perfect performance for him. Any more would be overkill.

With a deep chuckle, and a playful until-next-time wink that he bet Miss Ferros had caught he pulled on a thin rope to trigger the hidden mechanism on the wooden floor. A secret door opened from below his feet and down he goes, disappearing like a magic trick.

_We will see each other again very soon, Gray Lady._

/

Camille Ferros should be angry. Furious, even, that Khada Jhin had slipped through her fingers when she was the closest to catch him. But The Gray Lady of Piltover was a calculating woman. She does not get angry, she gets results. She does not show weakness. Not ever. Unfortunately for the Golden Demon, the same could not be said for him.

She learned from her sources that Khada Jhin was almost as meticulous as her, and that he succeeds and that everything he does goes according to plan. Although improvisation is his forte, he devises and successfully execute plans from time to time. Camille admits that The Golden Demon planned this out and got the results to his liking, but that one little thing he thought she missed made her doubt. That one albeit little flash of hesitance in his eyes made her terrifying image of him crumble into pieces.

Yes. The fear of tasting the medicine he so loved to give. Death.

He was afraid she was going to kill him.

Fear is much like a poison, once inside it spreads throughout the body at an alarming rate until the host dies horrifically. There was antidote, of course, but in this case his antidote would be her death, and Camile will not go down that easily. It is just a matter of who gets to who first.

Camille propped an arm behind her and surveyed her surroundings. The seventy-year old theater loved by many was in complete ruins. Corpses and what remains of them scattered all around in macabre fashion. She supposes it does look like art in some way; if you're experiencing a severe mental illness, that is. The crystal chandelier above was no more as it laid shattered into bits on the ground. In spite of all the wrong things in this picture, one of the killer's trap from above caught her eye. It glowed softly and had ironically brought a small smile to her face.

_You weren't as thorough as I thought, Golden Demon_, she mused, brushing off dust from her shoulder as she made her way outside the opera house.


End file.
